Archive for Headphones

How much would you be willing to spend for high end audiophone earphones? Maybe around $1,150? That’s the asking price for the new Ultimate Ears UE-11 Pro earphones, which sport four speakers in each ear.

The Ultimate Ears UE-11 Pro offers up an in-ear “speaker configuration of four proprietary balanced armatures with integrated, electrically and acoustically tuned passive three-way crossover.” This translates into what the company feels is an extremely pure sound. These speakers are joined by a two-driver subwoofer to better let you enjoy bass in a music or movie experience.

Philips has a new headset announced at CES last week that promises to bring quality sound from your mobile music-playing handsets as well as clear calls through a wireless Bluetooth connection. The SHB9000 Bluetooth headset features 40mm neodymium speakers and native MP3 decoding which according to Philips makes the sound quality the “best-ever”.

Be that as it may, the headphones also have SwitchStream letting you switch between incoming calls and music seamlessly, and also offer a subtle “side-tone” that lets you hear your own voice while talking on the phone as you would normally without wearing headphones. If you’ve ever talked on the phone while wearing over-the-ear headphones like these you’ll appreciate this feature. They also will auto adjust the volume based on surrounding noise and filter out background noises and echoes.

Ultimate Ears, a developer of premium earphones for consumers and music professionals, has unveiled for music aficionados a pricey universal fit model. It is called the Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 Pro and pricing is set at around $400.

The Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 Pro offer a frequency response of 10Hz to 17kHz, which should provide for great sound and which Ultimate Ears says is “the widest of any non-custom earpiece on the market.” These earphones have three speakers in each ear, making use of two bass drivers and a single high-frequency driver. There’s also mention of a “dual bore design,” which pipes the drivers through different openings at the tip of the earpiece.

Monster teamed up with music producer and artist Dr. Dre at CES this week to showcase some new headphones “engineered to accurately reproduce the best of today’s pop music.” These headphones are called “Beats by Dr. Dre” and they will set you back 400 bones come springtime.

“Beats by Dr. Dre,”, according to Monster, use technologies never before found in consumer grade headphones. This includes some new driver technology. The end result, supposedly, is “unequalled performance, with remarkably natural sound, incredible transient response and rich, deep bass.”

Klipsch, a purveyor of fine audio products, turned a lot of heads at CES this week by unveiling what it calls the “world’s smallest, lightest headphones” now available. This new product is the Image and it’s been priced at around $350.

Klipsch said the Image headphones, available for purchase now, use a special type of ear gel which is “anatomically designed to accurately fit inside the human ear canal.” Each Image comes with three different sized ear gels for a better fit.

You can get more details on the Klipsch Image headphones after the jump.

How would you like to be able to customize your earphones more to the style of listening you enjoy? That’s the idea behind the new SA6 in-ear earphones from Sleek Audio, being shown off at CES and priced at around $250.

The Sleek Audio SA6 earphones offers customization made possible by what Sleek Audio describes as “the marriage of loudspeaker technology and hearing aid science.” Features of the system this “marriage” has generated include interchangeable treble and bass ports, a single ultra-wide band balanced armature driver, “environmental sound control” and detachable swivel cables.

Computer gear maker IOGEAR is debuting today some new Bluetooth devices for making the most out of using your mobile phone. The one grabbing our eye the most is the IOGEAR Wireless Stereo Headphones, priced at around $50.

The IOGEAR Wireless Stereo Headphones sport a behind the neck design and are designed to sync with your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. You can use these headphones to listen to music wirelessly upwards of 30 feet away from the phone, letting you pause music when alerted that an incoming phone call is coming. Built-in controls also let you manage track changing and volume.

JVC said its HA-S900 headphones deliver what is described as high quality sound reproduction through “the use of a carbon compound diaphragm mated to a ported ring that controls the diaphragm’s movement, or sound pressure level, and so provides greater detail across a wide frequency range.” Listening is further improved by the sound insulation qualities of the ear pads, blocking out most ambient noises.

JVC recently debuted some new in-ear canal headphones which comes with a plug to make it iPhone compatible. The JVC HA-FX300 headphones are priced at around $100.

The JVC HA-FX300 headphones come in black, red and bronze color choices. JVC says the headphones use a variety of sound enhancing technologies to make the listening experience better. This include “an aluminum evaporation diaphragm, a new internal dual-metal structure and aluminum housing.”

LTB Audio has added some new headphones to its line of self-described “True” 5.1 Surround Sound wireless headphones. The Q-Home-FX should be available in November.

The LTB Q-Home-FX headphones make use of six speaker chambers for directional audio effects from whatever audio source it is patched into. The 2.4Ghz wireless technology of these headphones is designed to provide a good radio frequency connection while avoiding interfering with other wireless signals around the home. Wireless strength is rated to work at up to 90 feet away from the transmitter.

V-MODA, a “music lifestyle” brand out of Hollywood, is out today with a new iPhone targeted headset. The VIBE Duo is priced at around $100 and should be available now.

The V-MODA VIBE Duo is designed to be part of a line of “luxury, high-fashion modaphones.” Good looks and swank marketing aside these headphones do seem to offer a good deal of iPhone functionality. You’ve got built-in control-playback functionality so you can take a call via a microphone with a call button, finish the call and return to your music via a hands-free experience. There are also three-sizes of soft silicon fittings to provide a more cozy fit.

Creative has a new set of noise canceling headphones on the market with the new Aurvana X-Fi. These headphones are Creative’s first that have their new X-Fi technology which according to Creative will enhance your listening experience with additional sound features.

On the side of the Aurvana headphones are three buttons to turn on or off the three major features. The first is the noise canceling button which, just like it sounds, turns on or off the noise canceling feature reducing surrounding noise up to 20dB. The second button turns on the X-Fi Crystalizer which is designed to restore more detail to compressed songs and provide clearer music. The third button is the Cinematic effects (X-Fi CMSS-3D). This button turns on a feature that provides an surround sound experience in the headphones with voices in front and other sounds that seem to be around you.

AKG, a brand of the well respected Harman Consumer Group, announced today some new wireless headphones which look stylish quite comfortable. The AKG K 930 headphones appear as if they will be sold only overseas for the moment, retailing at EUR 149.

The AKG K 930 wireless headphones come in white or black colors and have a wireless range of up to 100 meters. This includes through walls and ceilings, thus making these headphones not require line of site from the transmitter attached to the audio source. The transmitter also acts as a storage base and recharger for the headphones’ battery.

LTB Audio Systems, a designer of audio headphones, recently announced two new headphones which are designed with PC gamers in mind. The wireless Q-Bass and wired Magnum 5.1 should be available now.

The Q-Bass headphones from LTB Audio operate on a wireless 2.4 GHz frequency and have two speakers in each ear cup. These headphones use a special LTB wireless technology to deliver what the company says “delivers a robust non-compressed CD-quality audio signal that has a range of up to 150 feel (line of sight).” A rechargeable battery provides up to 12 hours of entertainment and an included USB transmitter broadcasts the PC audio signal for the Q-Bass to pick up.

Otto, an audio products manufacturer based in Illinois, announced today a new digital headset for those who game. The Otto Digital Gaming Headset is priced at around $50 and available now.

The Otto Digital Gaming Headset incorporates some of the latest SRS technology to offer a better simulated surround sound experience while you blow things up. The attached flexible boom microphone makes use of noise-canceling and voice-recognition features so you can hear and respond to more clearly your online gaming buddies. It even sports large, soft ear cups for what Otto says is hours of comfort and sound isolation.